I get them from my site. You can print with the icon in the top right using Chrome (borderless) and Firefox (w/ margins); browser printing is a little more of a hassle than desktop topo software, but it meets your free criteria.

I just buy a 1:3XXXX or so from a local outdoor store. Generally costs 8 bucks but you dont spend several hours trying to find the best maps online then printed on water resistant paper in crappy ink. Thats my perspective. Although it is clear not all areas are available at stores...

Too bad the map machines at REI went away. They were great and I used them all the time. The maps were on great paper, under 10 bucks and not huge. You could just walk in and get a map of pretty much anything you wanted. I guess leasing the machines was very expensive.

I find that printing 7.5 minute USGS topos on 11 x 17 paper works well. My local print shop prints color laser 11 x 17 prints on 30lb paper for about $1.50 each. Cheap enough that you can make a copy for everyone in your party, and they don't smudge when wet. I imagine most print shops have similar prices.

If you want a large map of an area that you'll be visiting over and over, buy a large commercial map. It's hard to tear, hard to smear, and comes in a size that's uneconomical for single-serving prints. I own more of these than I care to count.

For an individual trip, I print out a small-scale map of the area I'll be visiting and plan on throwing it away when done. 8.5x11 is typically fine for this, at the worst I'll make two prints that cover different sections of a trail, or a zoomed-out print of the approach and a zoomed-in print of a climbing route.

myself use TOPO maps (yes, thats so 2010'ish) and print tyhem at home on "Tabloid" sized Tyvek " paper. forgot where I got the stuff, since I only use it for important stuff so I bought it once and haven't replaced it.

CClaude wrote:myself use TOPO maps (yes, thats so 2010'ish) and print tyhem at home on "Tabloid" sized Tyvek " paper. forgot where I got the stuff, since I only use it for important stuff so I bought it once and haven't replaced it.

TOPO is going to die out thanks to non-support on Windows8 and future versions... I probably have $400 invested in it to. Caltopo it is!